How do you stand out amidst the noise on LinkedIn? At first glance, the platform might seem flooded with bots, automated messages, and AI-generated content. The platform’s algorithms are constantly evolving, and users are reading fewer incoming messages. However, LinkedIn remains an essential platform for connecting with potential colleagues and clients, sharing expert insights, and generating valuable leads

In this article, we’ll share practical tools that the ModumUp team successfully uses to promote LinkedIn presence and Social Selling. No theories or guesses — just proven methods that deliver real results.

What is Social Selling, and how does it work? Simply put, it's about achieving business goals through personal social media profiles. At ModumUp, we focus on finding clients and partners through LinkedIn, as well as building personal brands.

How does it work in practice? First, we create personal profiles for representatives of the client company or help refine existing profiles. Then, we connect with the right people based on industry, job position, or location. At the same time, we share valuable content and engage with the audience: reacting to posts, commenting, and initiating conversations.

The primary tool for Social Selling is private messages. This is where next steps — calls and meetings — are planned. When reaching out, it’s helpful to start with a soft approach: share useful content or invite someone to an event, then move on to direct communication. In some niches, direct offers work faster. It’s important to test different approaches and choose what delivers results.

Social Selling can be divided into two phases: inbound and outbound.
Inbound mechanics include personal branding, content, and expert positioning. The main goal is to demonstrate professionalism to the right audience, especially potential clients and partners. Outbound, on the other hand, is active networking: adding new connections and sending direct messages.

In this article, we’ll explore both approaches. We’ll start with inbound mechanics, then move on to outbound strategies. And, most importantly, we’ll cover the current trends and methods that are working on LinkedIn in 2025.

Let’s begin with inbound marketing: how to create content and showcase your expertise. We’ve analyzed the results of our client projects and identified which posts get the most views and generate leads. Here are the key LinkedIn content formats we use:

Professional Content Posts

ModumUp’s experience shows that professional content works best when there is clear positioning and a specific target audience. A case in point: one of our clients created a profile from scratch to promote in the gaming industry. Within a few months, their posts became viral and garnered more views than their number of followers. The secret to success? Narrow content specialization for a niche audience. Profiles with followers from various industries face more difficulty achieving this effect, but other promotion methods work for them.

Visual Content

The design of posts has always been an important aspect. The best response comes from authentic, candid photos — both professional moments and personal pictures of the author. Branded materials, like company announcements, can also show good results if they are well-crafted. However, be cautious with AI-generated visuals — such content rarely resonates with the audience. Small imperfections in real photos can actually work in your favor, adding a sense of authenticity. On the other hand, AI-edited visuals often appear too artificial.

By the way, text-only posts without images also work well, as long as the content is engaging for the audience.

Video Content

LinkedIn prioritizes video content. You can record simple conversational videos on expert topics or create something more creative and engaging. However, in practice, our team has noticed that videos often yield average results compared to text posts or posts with photos. Despite LinkedIn’s active promotion of this format, we haven’t seen a significant increase in reach or engagement. Of course, experiences vary, but these are our observations across multiple projects.

Success Stories

They still work great! You can share stories about launching new products, new services, media mentions, awards received, or major achievements. Add a relevant photo to enhance the post’s impact.

Personal Posts

Although LinkedIn is business-oriented, personal stories reveal that there’s a real person behind the profile, especially in the age of artificial intelligence. When you share your experiences, readers find something relatable — common interests or similar situations. This helps build warm, human relationships, even in a formal business environment.

Trends

Keep an eye on trends in your industry and feel free to share your opinions — whether you support or critique them. A clear stance always attracts interest.

Share your experiences and opinions, providing examples from real life. A personal perspective is particularly valuable. Don’t shy away from entertaining content — popular memes, jokes, or interesting social media finds will make your posts more lively and engaging.

Newsletters

Instead of a typical post, you can create an informational newsletter about once a month.

The key advantage of this format is that subscribers receive notifications about each new issue — so interested readers won’t miss your content. It’s an excellent tool for sharing expert insights, strengthening your personal brand, and maintaining constant contact with your audience. For instance, our corporate newsletter brought ModumUp’s LinkedIn page over 800 subscribers in just three months. Personalized newsletters for clients typically attract even more new audience members.

At our agency, we create a variety of content over the course of a month — videos, guides, case studies, articles, and posts. We then select the three most valuable materials and include them in the newsletter with descriptions and recommendations.

Surveys

Surveys help gather insights about the audience’s needs and collect valuable data for personalized offers. For example, we surveyed users for our clients about the software versions and accounting programs they use. Based on their responses, we tailored our offers — recommending updates, suggesting custom solutions, or explaining the advantages of our services over competitors.

LinkedIn Live Events

Against the backdrop of spam and AI-generated content, webinars and podcasts stand out for their authenticity — they clearly show that a real person is behind the content. These formats help increase brand recognition, educate the audience, demonstrate products, and invite external speakers. For instance, in September, the ModumUp team held a conference where personal branding experts and major companies shared their experience of building personal brands for employees.

The key is not to rely on just one post format, even if it seems to yield the best results. Even within a narrow target audience, people have different preferences: some respond better to text, while others prefer videos.

Creating Posts with AI While Keeping a Human Touch

AI is an excellent assistant for any content manager, but it’s important not to rely entirely on it for writing content from scratch. Now that everyone is actively using ChatGPT and similar tools, social media has become flooded with repetitive, template-based posts. To stand out in this stream, it’s essential to create unique, lively content that reflects your real experience and expertise.

This doesn’t mean you can’t speed up your work with AI. Start by generating ideas for posts — just provide information about your business goals and positioning. AI can suggest professional, personal, or mixed topics, helping you overcome the fear of the blank page. You can also request creative or viral ideas tailored to your industry or expertise.

Keep in mind that LinkedIn favors content based on practical experience, rather than theoretical texts generated by AI. The best approach is to use AI to support your personal expertise: for example, record meetings, webinars, or videos through Teams or Zoom, then generate a post outline using AI. Afterward, edit the text to match your personal style. This method is much easier than writing expert content from scratch — just record your thoughts in audio or video form to quickly create high-quality content.

AI tools are also useful for editing posts, especially if you’re writing in a language that isn’t your native one.

To diversify your ideas and style, try using different AI tools (Claude, DeepSeek, ChatGPT) and compare the results.

For example, at ModumUp, we regularly hold meetings on various topics — from LinkedIn automation to client work. Important discussions are recorded via Teams or Zoom, and then the transcription is processed by AI to create a draft post. After that, the text is manually edited to add a personal tone.

Unlike inbound marketing, which focuses on content and personal branding, outbound strategies are essential for achieving specific business goals.

Outbound marketing on LinkedIn is primarily direct communication through private messages. While some perceive this approach as spam, it all depends on the quality of your profile and the message itself. Let’s look at the most effective approaches to crafting those messages.

The key role is played by icebreakers — phrases that help start a conversation. Sometimes humor and irony can be effective, but their use requires caution and consideration of the cultural context of the recipient. The optimal strategy is personalization, but it should be natural and unobtrusive. Show genuine interest in the person, mention common points of connection — whether it's the alma mater, shared work experience, or professional achievements. If necessary, regional context can be used delicately.

Well-chosen icebreakers can significantly improve communication effectiveness. In our experience, they can increase response rates by 30-100%, so we strongly recommend this method.

Equally important are follow-up messages. Given the high speed of information consumption on LinkedIn and other social networks, the first message might be overlooked. The optimal strategy is a sequence of 3-5 messages, each offering unique value. For example, the first message could be a simple introduction, and in the follow-up messages, you can provide detailed information, exclusive materials, or relevant case studies. The final message should summarize the conversation but leave room for continued dialogue. Interestingly, the most responses typically come from the first, second, and fifth messages — the latter often prompts a response due to the sense of "last chance" for the recipient.

If your goal is networking, it’s best to keep the sequence shorter and avoid being overly persistent. Unlike direct sales, networking requires a softer approach. For instance, send a message inviting the recipient to a webinar, offering exclusive content, or suggesting a call to discuss a potential partnership.

Another great approach is combining online and offline communication. For example, we help clients organize offline events, such as meetings at restaurants or coworking spaces. We find the right people on LinkedIn and send them invitations. This allows our clients to meet their target audience, build relationships, and continue the conversation. After such meetings, people are more likely to become leads, as face-to-face interactions help build trust.

Industry Event Participation
A similar value comes from participating in industry events. We assist clients in establishing communication with other participants and ensure they continue connecting after the event. Even if you didn’t interact during a webinar or summit, simply participating creates a foundation for future collaboration.

If your profile is professionally crafted and your posts reflect your expertise, your audience is more likely to engage. Of course, some may ignore you, but others will be interested in communicating and potentially collaborating. Be prepared for various responses.

Targeted Advertising on LinkedIn

Targeted advertising on LinkedIn is more suited for building brand awareness and trust among your target clients than for direct lead generation. Even if you're actively promoting through the ad platform, personal communication should still be a priority. Advertising can be an additional tool for increasing reach or, for example, promoting events.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Another effective strategy is Account-Based Marketing (ABM). With ABM, you work with specific target companies, tailoring your approach to each one. For instance, if you have a list of 100 target accounts, your goal is to engage with them and build relationships so they eventually become clients. Since these are large corporations with multiple decision-makers, you need to invest time in networking, building relationships, and raising awareness about your company and products.

Results come over time. Once followers are confident in your expertise, they’ll reach out when a need arises. You can also proactively offer your services.

Shortening the Path to Your Target Audience: How AI Can Help

Let’s talk about using AI in outbound marketing. AI helps structure contact lists, prepare messages, and, importantly, better understand the psychology of potential clients.

To build a client database, you can use Clay — a popular tool among LinkedIn experts that integrates different databases and AI functionalities. With Clay, you can add extra information to company and professional lists.

However, Clay is quite an expensive tool. More affordable alternatives include extensions like Sheet Magic for Chrome, which helps with Excel or Google Sheets. Our team primarily uses this tool, but there are many others depending on your specific needs.

AI also helps in finding influencers and experts in your industry. This is useful for networking, finding collaboration partners, selecting speakers for events, and direct partnerships.

Moreover, AI simplifies messaging. Use it to draft messages and create personalized offers for different audience segments. This saves time and provides a solid foundation for further refinement. For example, after receiving twenty versions of a message from AI, you can choose the best ideas and adapt them to your needs.

To better understand your audience, you can also use specialized tools, such as the Crystal extension for Chrome. Crystal can analyze a profile or website, identify the key traits and values of the owner, and help you create a more relevant message based on that information.

Crystal also offers ready-made messages at various stages of the sales funnel. However, to avoid using cookie-cutter solutions, it’s best to write your own texts based on the information provided.

We also divide Social Selling metrics into inbound and outbound categories.

Content engagement rate isn’t as critical. As the number of contacts grows, engagement tends to decrease — new connections need time to start interacting with your content. It’s more important to analyze views: how many people see your content, and how relevant they are. LinkedIn provides detailed information about who’s viewing your posts: their companies, industries, and job titles.

Profile visits are also important — they show that your target audience finds you through LinkedIn’s search. Even if they don’t send a connection request or follow you, simply viewing your profile is a good sign.

As for the Social Selling Index (SSI), don’t focus too much on this metric. Many people complain about its decline, but it’s not a business metric. SSI primarily reflects how actively you use the platform’s features. It’s useful for LinkedIn product managers to assess product usage, but it’s not critical for business. LinkedIn changes its algorithms, and SSI can change too, so don’t worry about it dropping — it happens to everyone, even top influencers.

Individuality: An Enduring Social Media Trend

Social Selling on LinkedIn remains an effective tool for business growth and personal branding. Success here is built on a combination of inbound and outbound strategies: creating high-quality content, thoughtful networking, and effectively using new tools, including AI.

The key is maintaining a balance between technology and your individuality. Use AI as an assistant for audience analysis and content preparation, but don’t forget about the personal touch and genuine communication. Experiment with different formats, track metrics, and adapt your strategy based on audience response.

Ultimately, LinkedIn is a platform for building professional relationships. And no matter which tools you use, the quality of those relationships will determine your long-term success.